Mitt Romney's Etch A Sketch moment on health care law

As Ronald Reagan would say, with that slightly bemused shake of the head: “There he goes again.”

Earlier this week, the Romney campaign said the health insurance mandate was a penalty, not a tax. That position aligned the presumptive Republican nominee for the White House with President Obama — and blew the minds of most conservatives and Republicans. After all, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Obama’s health care reform act by decreeing the mandate was a tax, not a penalty, and Republicans found a way to be jubilant. The court decision, an ostensible loss for the anti-Obamacare crowd, gave them a juicy consolation prize: a tax cudgel with which to hit Obama about the head.

Then a Romney aide issued a news release saying the candidate believed the mandate was an unconstitutional penalty. Republicans were apoplectic.

But one could sympathize with Romney’s plight. After all, the health care reform he introduced as governor of Massachusetts is the model for the Obama reform. And included a similar mandate.

By Wednesday, Romney was backtracking, fast.
Fourth of July holiday? Hold the hot dogs and fireworks. Romney sent up his own rocket, hoping to clear the air. If the high court says it’s a tax, it’s a tax, Romney said on CBS News.

He once again is shamelessly straddling both sides of an issue and holding a well-manicured finger to the wind.

Those lights shimmering in the sky began to look not like the American flag, but more like a giant Etch A Sketch that had just been vigorously shaken.

So add the health care mandate to the growing list of issues on which Romney has flip-flopped: abortion, immigration, the minimum wage. And overall health care reform, of course, which he instituted when he was governor of Massachusetts.

Voters now have to consider not only Romney’s jelly-spine on issues, but whether, in fact, he’s even controlling the Etch A Sketch knobs himself.